Page 80 of Show Me 1

I swallowed and nodded. “Very much. He’s like…like all the birthday wishes I made but never got, stored up and rolled into one big gift I received at a time when I needed it most.”

“Then that’s all I need to know. The rest is between the two of you.” She winked at me. “The only thing I’m going to hold against you is that he says you make Rotel better than mine.”

“Oh, well, I can share the secret to that easy.”

“Then I’d say we’re golden.”

* * *

“I didn’t meanto eat that much.” Chet groaned and collapsed onto one of the couches next to Mark and slumped against his shoulder.

“You say that at least once a day. You think you’d learn.”

“Glutton for punishment. I wouldn’t be with you, otherwise.”

“You’ll regret that.”

“Now or later?”

Chet’s smile took on a wicked curve. “Later.”

I made a half-hearted grab for the TV remote and when I missed, gave up and collapsed back on the other couch. “I’m still trying to figure out which of you is the bigger asshole in this pairing.”

Predictably, they both pointed at each other.

“Mark, definitely,” Nate said, a drumstick in his hand as he and Eric wandered in from the kitchen. How he was still eating was beyond me.

Mark seesawed his hand, and I broke into a stupid grin as Sam appeared behind Nate and Eric.

“Your family is so nice.” I made room for him as he approached, dropped onto the couch next to me, and wrapped me in his arms, my own human cocoon. I loved it. “They want you to come over Christmas if you can.” He rubbed his lips back and forth over the crown of my head and then pecked me on the temple.

“Wow. When you two are in, you’re in.” Nate gaped at us.

“Could’ve seen that one coming.” Ansel smirked.

Sam and I both looked over at him. “How?” I asked. “You’re hardly ever here in the first place. Have you ever even seen us hanging out together? Until tonight, the last time I saw you was a week ago when you forgot your extra pair of running shoes.”

Ansel twisted the cap off his beer and flicked it at Sam, then indulged in a leisurely swallow of his beer, evidently enjoying our rapt attention. “Freshman year. The two of you.”

“I hardly knew him freshman year,” I countered. “I knew him by face only, because he was friends with Nate.” I wasn’t going to bring up waving a dildo in front of him shortly before collapsing into my pity party.

“That may be what you remember, but it’s not the full story.”

“Quit being cryptic, dude.” Sam’s voice dipped low the way it tended to when he was starting to get agitated.

Ansel waved the mouth of his beer bottle back and forth between us. “You two were making out one night like the world was about to end.”

I glanced at Sam. “Pretty sure we’d remember that. Sam, any recollection?”

“None.”

“Same.”

Ansel laughed. “I don’t know about Sam, but Jesse, you told me to forget what I’d seen and to never ever, ever speak of it again. I couldn’t tell if you were really upset or really excited, but you were definitely really drunk. It was outside one of the frat houses. I didn’t know who you were back then, but Sam I recognized from the football team.”

I squinted at him. “And you witnessed this how?”

“I was taking a run.”